"Danny and Kyle have been the horses all year," coach John Canova said. "And the others have been very consistent. They've done above and beyond what they've needed to all year."

Boylan's next four golfers can be interchangeable. Max Alexander, Adam Eckburg, Mike Schmid and Max Marssili have all had at least one of their scores counted in Boylan's top four at conference, regional and sectional.

Marsili was the last to join this great rotation, strengthening Boylan's already strong hopes to win a state title Friday and Saturday at the Class 2A state golf tournament at Weibring Golf Club at Illinois State in Bloomington.

"Max struggled in the middle part of the year," Canova said, "but I liked how he was swinging it the week before conference and told him, 'You are our (number) six (golfer) now.' He's been able to relax and stay within himself more since. He always had somebody looking over his shoulder before."

Boylan's top two challengers are probably fellow sectional champs Metamora and Glenbard South (317). Glenbard South is the only one of the 12 teams in the field to reach state last year and its top three players were two freshmen and a sophomore on last year's sixth-place team. But neither has Boylan's depth; there was a 15-stroke gap between Glenbard South's No. 4 and 5 golfers at sectionals and nine for Metamora.

Class 1A

Byron, third last year, and Stockton, which reached state for the first time, should both be top-three trophy contenders, but it's a stacked field. Eight of the 12 teams return from last year, and the top three — two-time defending champion Winnetka North Shore Country Day, El Paso-Gridley and Byron — return the bulk of their teams.

"That's a tall order. We know they're good," Byron coach Tim Sedam said after finishing four strokes behind Winnetka NSCD at sectionals. "But we know we can compete with them. We don't feel like underdogs."

Prairie Vista, the Class 1A boys state course in Bloomington, is a water-lined bentgrass course that's a lot like Byron's home course of PrairieView — right down to the name.

"It's short and very narrow," Byron's Dan Lowe said. "You've got to hit it straight. You also have to do that here. It's nice that our home course is a lot like Prairie Vista."

Stockton's 320 at sectionals was the fourth-lowest 1A score.

"We definitely can stack up at state," Stockton's Trey Timpe said.

Individuals

Kori Freidag of Eastland, Lexi Graf of Lena-Winslow and Kara Nehrkorn of Rock Falls, all in Class A, were the only local girls to qualify individually for state.